Contribution of innovation to local development management in a municipality of Matanzas

In order to know the contribution of the innovation system to local development management in the Perico municipality--Matanzas province, Cuba--, a systematization exercise was carried out in the period 2013-2016. For such purpose, interviews were made to key actors, who were identified and classified according to the objective, the functions and interest of the study, as well as according to the practices implemented in the farms. The information was processed using the method of divergence and recurrence analysis (1). In addition, the productive diversity, mercantile production and incomes of the involved farms; the flexibility of the current legislation with regards to the economic activity; the establishment of innovations, private and state initiative for innovation; the participatory processes and commercialization of local products, were evaluated. The incorporation of good practices of the innovation system allowed an increase of the farm mercantile production and incomes, which was favored by the direct relation between the originated transformations regarding diversity and practice, and the economic-productive indicators. The practices promoted from the local innovation system have allowed the modification of the ways to disseminate knowledge, by opening exchange and innovation spaces that stimulate the consolidation of alliances and links among the local sectors. However, no effective mechanisms of mobilization which would allow to overcome the citizens' lack of confidence and discouragement were achieved. Keywords: community development, agricultural exploitations, economic indicators